Kosovo & the Systematic Persecution by KLA

The former Yugoslavia was engulfed by many conflicts and ethnic and religious differences tore away at the very fabric of this nation. Like all wars, atrocities took place on all sides but the mass media in general focused on Serbian atrocities, while neglecting brutal crimes committed against the Serbian community. This certainly applies to the glossing over of war crimes done by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).

However, more and more evidence is coming to light about brutal KLA death camps and killing people for organs. Therefore, will former KLA members be charged with war crimes and will the "real truth" be told about international collusion? If not, then where does this leave Kosovo?

Before focusing on this important issue I fear a major cover-up. After all, the American version of history is that Kosovo should be independent because Albanians suffered greatly, therefore, Serbia does not have a moral right to keep Kosovo under Serbia.

Yet, if it comes to light that the KLA killed mainly Serbians, and also fellow Albanians, Roma, and other minorities, then where does this leave the American, British, and the Albanian version of events?

Remember, we are not talking about massacres taking place by opposing armies; on the contrary, we are talking about the KLA killing civilians for organs and for other brutal reasons.

Also, since the ending of the conflict it is clear that countless numbers of Christian Orthodox Churches have been destroyed and non-Albanian culture is on the wane. Added to this, thousands of people have been killed by Albanian nationalists and innocent Serbians, Roma, and others, have "been killed in silence" because it doesn't suit the interests of America, the United Kingdom, and other nations who supported the KLA.

The BBC, a very liberal British network, highlighted the brutal deeds of the KLA during the airing of "Crossing Continents" and "Newsnight" which was broadcasted on April 9, 2009. Paul Mitchell, BBC correspondent, states that this provides "another side to the conflict which the world was not supposed to see."

If we take this further, it also undermines the claims of America, the United Kingdom, and other nations who support the independence of Kosovo. After all, the findings show "a dirty covert war" and it raises further important questions, for example, how did the KLA develop overnight and where did they obtain their military hardware from?

However, I do not want to get bogged down by the justifications of either side in this article. Instead I want to focus on the disturbing findings of the BBC and others who hope to bring to light the past evils of the KLA.

Once more, before delving into this I wish to state that all sides in this conflict committed atrocities be they Albanian or Serbian. Also, the brutal civil wars which took place in Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo, witnessed many massacres and like all wars, you have no pure side because war always leads to atrocities and often it is the civilian population which is victimized the most.

Therefore, this article is not intended to be anti any one single ethnic group and of course many Albanians in Kosovo were also victims. Each ethnic and religious group suffered pain, irrespective if Orthodox Christian or Muslim, or if Serbian or Albanian.

However, the mass media mainly gave a one sided point of view, and this point of view was anti-Serbian. Yet the findings by the BBC and others highlight a different story and one which continues to be mainly ignored. This applies to the brutal killings and torture of innocent Serbians by the KLA and others were also murdered by this terrorist organization.

Yes, I stress terrorist organization for one simple reason. Throughout all of the civil wars in the former Yugoslavia it was clear that many Muslims remained in Serbia, after all, the Muslim community in Serbia is part and parcel of this independent nation which is multi-ethnic and multi-religious.

However, did the KLA protect Serbian Orthodox Christians, Roma, and other minorities? The answer is clearly no. Instead the KLA used a reign of terror against all minorities and persecuted fellow Albanians who were deemed to be traitors. Therefore, the KLA was a terrorist organization and clearly this organization was involved in major criminality including the killing of innocents in order to sell organs.

In the article written by Paul Mitchell, a former KLA prisoner states "I've seen a lot, people beaten, stabbed, hit with steel pipes, left without eating for 5 or 6 days. People had bullet proof vests on and were shot to see if it was working, thrown into tombs, beaten up and killed."

The former KLA prisoner continues by saying "What can you feel when you see those things?" he added. "It's something that is stuck in my mind for the rest of my life. You cannot do those things to people, not even to animals."

Another Albanian who is suffering the aftershocks of this brutal conflict also bravely speaks the truth. He highlights that he drove trucks with prisoners who were shackled and he stresses that the majority were Serbian civilians and not only this, he drove them from Kosovo to Albania. He continues by stating "I was sick. I was just waiting for it to end. It was hard. I thought we were fighting a war [of liberation] but this was something completely different."

KLA sites of systematic torture and killings were based throughout Kosovo and also in parts of Albania. For example Kukes and Burrel in Albania were used by the KLA with regards to military training, obtaining weapons, and for other factors. This in itself raises the role of Albania and NATO nations which took part in the bombing of the former Yugoslavia.

However, getting back to Kukes and Burrel and systematic torture and killing of innocents, it becomes apparent that these sites witnessed many barbaric atrocities. The International Centre for the Red Cross obtained information about brutal murders in Burrel in 2000. This applies to being informed by KLA fighters who stated that Serbian civilians were killed in 1999 in Burrel and these killings had an economic motive because organs were removed and then sold abroad.

Of course, this information would be very troubling for both America and the United Kingdom, because both these nations had sold the war in the disguise of "good" versus "evil." However, if the good side, the KLA, is involved in killing civilians for harvesting organs and then selling these organs on to other nations, then what does this make America and the United Kingdom?

Also, the hard sell by America, the United Kingdom, and other nations who support independence, is that independence is justified on the grounds of Serbian atrocities. Yet if the KLA was found to be involved in killing civilians for organs then "the spin machine" collapses and "democracy" rings hollow.

The role of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) is also criticized because of deeds which took place. UNMIK's former head for Missing Persons and Forensics, Jose Pablo Baraybar, comments that "There were people that are certainly alive that were in Kukes, in that camp, as prisoners. Those people saw other people there, both Albanians and non-Albanians. There were members of the KLA leadership going through that camp. Many names were mentioned, and I would say that that is an established fact."

More alarming, Baraybar openly admits that UNMIK was fully aware that the KLA had many detention centres and this in itself should have warranted a major investigation. Yet, claims Baraybar, "no proper investigation was ever carried out."

Sian Jones, Amnesty International spokesperson was more scathing because Jones states that UNMIK "chose not to investigate." Jones also adds that there were "lots of allegations, lots of victims but little true justice."

Therefore, it is clear that important vested interests have a need to cover-up the real truth behind "this dirty war." The United Nations, NATO, the role of Albania and major political leaders in nations like America and the United Kingdom, all come out of this in a terrible light. Also, it raises the issue of "war crime tribunals" and fairness and this terrible and tragic conflict questions the morality of major nations and institutions.

The issue of Kosovo remains because the majority of the international community does not recognize Kosovo to be an independent nation. If the truth really "came to light" and a full and major investigation took place, then clearly you would have many disturbing findings. However, world leaders from major nations do not have to worry about war crimes, and this is the problem, you still have a world of "real power" versus nations of "limited power" and we all know that the outcome is dependent on this sad reality.

The real tragedy of Kosovo, like all civil wars, is that innocents died on all sides. Yet it is clear that a major investigation is needed because killing innocents for organs is truly barbaric and you have enough evidence that this did take place. So will this disgraceful chapter come to light or will it be brushed under the carpet because of power politics?

If we judge past history then it would appear that it will be brushed under the carpet. However, when major powers want to ignore issues like this, it is truly sickening and the role of the mass media in general is also a loser because not enough was said or done at the time of this conflict. Once more the propaganda machine of "the rich and powerful won" and the real losers were the innocents on all sides.

However, one story was told, that of the persecution of the Albanians; but the other story, the persecution of Serbians, Roma, and other minorities remains untold. Yet the story of death camps and killing innocents for organs must be told and a true investigation is needed and this applies to everything and not just minor people who took part in this brutal war.

There were many who knew what was going on but who were hushed. One who spoke out about it, was the late Congressman, Helen Chenoweth (r) Idaho. She saw not only the NATO Bombing’s effect on Serbia, but also its affect on the American political system:

Our Illegal War
*by Congressman Helen Chenoweth*

* Congress must reclaim its authority*

*Vol. 15, No. 09 www.thenewamerican.com/tna/1999/04-26-99/illegal_war.htm
April 26, 1999

When the order was given for American military personnel to attack Yugoslavia, it was not issued following a declaration of war from Congress. Nor was the order given by the President as a means of repelling a sudden attack on America by a foreign aggressor, or as a measure intended to rescue Americans abroad from unexpected peril. In fact, the order to attack Yugoslavia didn’t even follow the pattern set in Korea and Vietnam, in which our nation was committed to protracted foreign wars through unilateral presidential action. On March 23rd, the order to commence hostilities was given to an American general by a Spanish Marxist NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana.

“I have just directed the Supreme Allied Commander of Europe, General [Wesley] Clark, to initiate air operations in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia,” announced Solana, who insisted that the attack “is intended to support the political aims of the international community.”

Congress played no role in defining those political aims, which means that the American people =97 in whose name Congress is empowered to act were not permitted to play any role in the decision to commit our nation to war.

In the run-up to our war with Yugoslavia, Congress was permitted by its leaders to carry out an impotent charade of debate. On March 11th, the House approved a non-binding resolution endorsing the use of American troops to enforce a peace agreement between the Yugoslav regime of Slobodan Milosevic and secessionist leaders in Yugoslavia’s Kosovo province. On March 23rd just hours before Solana issued the order to begin the bombing, the Senate approved a resolution supporting the military campaign. But Clinton Administration officials, including the President, had by that time made it clear that while they sought *approval* of the military action from Congress, they did not consider it necessary for Congress to *authorize* the military strike on Yugoslavia.

A few senators seemed to understand the constitutional implications of these actions.

Senator Don Nickles (R-OK) pointed out, “If we start a massive bombing campaign, we’re going to war.”

Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) described the prospect of waging an undeclared aggressive war upon Yugoslavia as “a precedent I don’t want to be involved in.”

Even more pointed were the comments of Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM). “I say shame on the President,” declared Domenici, momentarily forgetting that Bill Clinton has repeatedly demonstrated that he is incapable of shame. “If this is such an important matter, why couldn’t [the President] trust the United States Senate and United States House and ask us whether we concur?”

In order to appreciate the depth of the Administration’s deception regarding the war over Kosovo, it is necessary to understand that the war was “authorized” by NATO long before the bombing began on March 24th.

The day after the war began, the *London Telegraph* reported that General Clark NATO’s supreme military commander, “received his activation order for hostilities last October. The order was the official moment when authority over the forces to be used was transferred to him from the top brass of the member countries supplying them. The supreme commander *does not need new permission* from politicians or diplomats whenever he wishes to change tactics, or increase or scale back operations.” (Emphasis added.)

At 1:43 P.M. Eastern Standard Time on March 24th, with American bombers en route to Yugoslavia and just minutes before the first explosions were reported on the ground in Kosovo, White House spokesman Joe Lockhart explicitly admitted that the power to take our nation into war had been surrendered to a foreign official namely, the NATO Secretary-General.

Lockhart was asked by correspondent Helen Thomas, “Who gives the green light on this now? Is it the President himself, or the Supreme Commander of NATO...?” Lockhart replied, “The Supreme Commander of NATO acts on the authority of the political leaders of the NATO countries, and he has that authority.”

In brief, the power to declare war in Kosovo was exercised by NATO Secretary-General Solana; the power to make war was given to NATO’s Supreme Commander; the President of the United States played the role of “selling” the war to the public, and Congress was tacitly told that its duty was to rubber-stamp the decision to take our nation into war, and to authorize payment of the resulting expenses.

“No power but Congress can declare war,” observed Daniel Webster in 1846 “but what is the value of this constitutional provision, if the President of his own authority may make such military movements as must bring on war?”

The Administration’s actions in committing our country to enforce, through military action, diplomatic initiatives in Kosovo presented Congress with a *fait accompli.* The only recourse left to Congress was to defund military deployments to which the Administration had previously committed our country but the political will for that is not evident.

Unfortunately, the majority in both houses of Congress have abdicated their responsibility and have acquiesced in the usurpation of their powers. The passivity of the House in allowing Bill Clinton to carry out an illegal war is particularly galling in light of the fact that the same body impeached him last December for much less serious crimes.

Under the Constitution, explained Alexander Hamilton, “It is the province and duty of the Executive to preserve to the Nation the blessings of peace. The Legislature alone can interrupt those blessings, by placing the Nation in a state of War.”

By surrendering to a series of executive usurpations (those of Bill Clinton being the most brazen), Congress has abandoned the separation of powers and embraced in its place a version of *fuhrerprinzip* the “leader principle” in which Congress meekly endorses the decisions of an imperial “commander-in-chief.”

“Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object,” wrote Abraham Lincoln in 1848.

The royal war-making prerogative which permitted one man to commit his country to war, was regarded by our Founding Fathers “to be the most oppressive of all Kingly oppressions,” Lincoln explained.

For this reason, the statesmen who gathered at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 “resolved to so frame the Constitution that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us.”

James Madison’s notes on the Convention record the care with which the Founders assigned the power to declare war to the legislative branch. This was done, as George Mason of Virginia noted, for the purpose of “clogging rather than facilitating war.”

At the initiative of Madison and Elbridge Gerry, the original language authorizing Congress to “make” war was changed to the power to “declare” war, thereby (in Madison’s words) “leaving to the Executive the power to repel sudden attacks.”

In an April 2, 1798 letter to Thomas Jefferson, Madison further elucidated the reasoning behind this careful assignment of powers.

“The constitution supposes, what the History of all [governments] demonstrates, that the [executive] is the branch of power most interested in war, and most prone to it. It has accordingly, with studied care, vested the question of war in the legislature.”

Alexander Hamilton, who favored a strong Executive branch, observed in *The Federalist*, No. 69:

“The President is to be commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States. In this respect, his authority would *nominally* be the same with that of the king of Great Britain, *but in substance much inferior to it.*” (Emphasis added.)

Where the power of the English king “extends to the *declaring* of war and to the *raising* and *regulating* of fleets and armies,” Hamilton explained, the authority of the U.S. President “amounts to nothing more than the supreme command and direction of the land and naval forces, as first general and admiral” after the declaration of war has been issued by Congress.

The text of the Constitution itself (Article II, Section 2) specifies, “The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States....”

In other words, “Commander in Chief” describes a specific and limited role played by the President. Rather than Congress having a Commander in Chief before which it must prostrate itself, it has in the President an executive it may entrust with delegated war-making authority.

It bears repeating that in the Kosovo war, the role of commander in chief by the Administration’s own admission, has been assigned to NATO’s Supreme Commander, who exercises (in Hamilton’s words) “the supreme command and direction of the land and naval forces” called into service by Secretary-General Solana.

Perhaps, given Mr. Clinton’s own history of “loathing” for the military, personal cowardice, and bottomless corruption it is of benefit to the morale of American servicemen fighting in Yugoslavia to know that it is General Clark who serves as their commander in chief.

Nevertheless, this arrangement gravely undermines the constitutional mechanisms designed to protect our liberties and national sovereignty.

In my remarks to the House of Representatives during the March 11th debate I reminded my colleagues that nothing in the laws or the Constitution suggests that a determination by the United Nations Security Council or by the North Atlantic Council (NATO’s governing political body) is a substitute for a congressional declaration of war. Furthermore, by making war on a sovereign nation, NATO acted in violation of both its own charter and that of the United Nations.

The North Atlantic Treaty states that NATO will “refrain in [its] international relations from the threat or use of force in any manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations.”

The document specifies that NATO was created to defend “the territorial integrity political independence or security” of its members in exercising the right of “collective self-defense recognized by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations.”

Whatever one thinks of the actions of the Milosevic regime in suppressing a secessionist movement within its own borders, it must be admitted that the Yugoslav regime did nothing to threaten the “integrity political independence or security” of NATO members. Thus NATO’s attack on that regime violated the alliance’s founding treaty.

Furthermore, NATO’s commitment to act in harmony with “the purposes of the United Nations” requires that the alliance be bound by the UN Charter.

Article 2, section 7 of the UN Charter states, “Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state”; the suppression of Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian secessionist movement is clearly within Yugoslavia’s domestic jurisdiction.

Under the precedent set in the Kosovo war, America may find itself committed to military intervention in ethnic conflicts around the world. Should we attack Turkey to protect the Kurds, who chafe under Turkish rule?

Should we go to war with China in support of independence-minded Tibet?

Will U.S. planes attack Sri Lanka in defense of Tamil separatists, or bomb targets in India on behalf of Muslims in Kashmir?

The logic of the Kosovo precedent dictates that U.S. troops can be committed to war, without congressional sanction, anywhere in the world where atrocities are captured by the camera lens.

The war on Yugoslavia, we must remember, was brought about by NATO’s demand that Milosevic consent to the foreign occupation of his country by an international army, which would enforce the terms of an agreement intended to grant “autonomy” to ethnic Albanian rebels. When Milosevic refused to permit the occupation, NATO threatened to bomb his country, and ultimately carried out that threat.

Once again, the Clinton Administration has been devastatingly candid about key facts.

On February 10th, in testimony before the Committee on International Relations, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Pickering confirmed that Kosovo is part of Yugoslavia’s sovereign territory, and that an attack upon Yugoslavia waged because of Milosevic’s refusal to allow foreign intervention would be nothing less than an act of war.

It is a remarkable spectacle to see the Clinton Administration and NATO taking over from the Soviet Union the role of sponsoring “wars of national liberation.”

More remarkable still, and even more unsettling, is the fact that the beneficiary in the case of Kosovo the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) is a collection of Maoist drug-peddlers and terrorists who have been armed by Iran and provided with training and support by Saudi terrorist financier Osama bin Ladin, who is the world’s most notorious sponsor of international terrorism.

When Bill Clinton, in an earlier crime against the Constitution unilaterally launched missile strikes on Afghanistan and Sudan, he claimed that his target was the terrorist network operated by bin Ladin.

However, in Kosovo, Bill Clinton has committed America’s military might to the support of bin Ladin’s Balkan allies, and the policy of the Clinton Administration seeks the creation of a Balkan outpost for bin Ladin’s terrorist network.

THE NEW AMERICAN was the first national publication in this country to document the KLA’s narco-terrorist background:

“Diving into the Kosovo Quagmire www.thenewamerican.com/tna/1999/03-15-99/kosovo.htm

[March 15th issue), and I made this magazine’s findings available to many of my colleagues on Capitol Hill. Although few U.S. publications have looked into the KLA’s role in international narco-terrorism, the *Times *of London for March 24th, in a story published just before NATO commenced airstrikes upon Yugoslavia, reported that the KLA, in “the judgment of senior police officers across Europe,” is “a Marxist-led force funded by dubious sources including drug money.”

Police forces in three Western European countries together with Europol, “are separately investigating growing evidence that drug money is funding the KLA’s leap from obscurity to power,” continued the report.

A report filed on the same day by Steve Rodan of the *World Tribune* described how an “autonomous” Kosovo under KLA control could serve as a springboard for Iranian sponsored terrorism throughout Europe and beyond.

According to Western European security experts, wrote Rodan, “Iran, Saudi Arabia and some of their terrorist beneficiaries have exploited the fighting to establish a sphere of influence that spans from Greece to the Austrian border.”

NATO’s willingness to go to war on behalf of Muslim ethnic Albanians in Kosovo could ignite insurrections across Europe, to which the KLA’s terrorist sponsors would eagerly lend support.

“The concern of European strategists is that an Iranian sphere of influence would do greater damage to such Western countries as Britain, France and Germany,” reported Rodan.

“France has about two million Muslims, most of them poor and alienated. Britain has about 1.5million.” A European diplomat told Rodan, “Once these minorities feel that they can obtain the support of NATO, we could see flare-ups everywhere.”

We could see “flare-ups” within our own nation as well and the Kosovo precedent would justify military intervention by the “international community” to settle such conflicts within our own borders. Consider the case of the southwestern United States, a region referred to as “Aztlan,” the mythical homeland of the Aztecs, by such militant groups as the “Brown Berets.”

Aztlan radicals have announced their intention to conduct *la reconquista* the re-conquest of that region through unrestrained illegal immigration, as well as subversion and violence. It is not difficult to foresee a future scenario in which the “international community” authorizes the use of military force in support of “autonomy” for Aztlan, in the same way that the war in Yugoslavia was launched in support of “autonomy” for an Albanian Muslim-dominated Kosovo.

Had Congress performed its constitutional duty, all of these facts would have been rigorously examined before our nation found itself committed to an illegal war in Yugoslavia.

We would have demanded that the President make his best case to the people’s representatives in a formal request for a declaration of war. This would have given us the opportunity to require that he defend an alliance with drug-dealing Marxists bent upon promoting terrorism throughout Europe.

Had Congress been willing to exercise a check on presidential ambitions by withholding funds for the envisioned military deployment, we would have learned, in a timely fashion, about the unconstitutional arrangement through which the power to declare war was delegated to a Spanish Marxist, and the power to make war was assigned to NATO’s military commander. Had we acted with statesman-like deliberation, we would have soberly discussed and contemplated the implications of the Kosovo precedent for our nation’s future.

It was our duty to do all of this before deciding whether or not to interrupt “the blessings of peace by placing the Nation in a State of War.”

Instead, Congress submitted to the usurpations of a corrupt, impeached President, and made itself complicit in his crimes against our Constitution and our national sovereignty.

Congress can reclaim the powers it has surrendered. Indeed it must, if our descent into tyranny and the erosion of our sovereignty are to be arrested.

But this will not happen until a critical mass of public understanding is reached, and informed pressure is brought to bear. The actions of an imperial President can, as Lincoln warned, “bring this oppression upon us” = but only if, through our indifference, we allow those malign designs to flourish.

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